I have a gaming closet.

10.17.2010

I enjoy getting things organized. I do. Not just for the sake of doing it - I tend to try to organize things in a useful way, or I at least like to believe it's useful. That's what led me to my latest organizational task. I've got lots of gaming crap stuff. Lots. I like collecting games, mainly because I like reading rules and seeing how somebody can make up a world (or city, or battle) with rules that both make sense and are hopefully balanced. Over the past few years I've started getting into miniatures-based games, and with those types of games come lots of little components to keep track of. I've stored various parts of all the games here and there throughout the house, but it was getting hard to find something once I started looking for it. Enter my mad organizational skillz.

Now in my closet I have roughly 35 shoebox sized nicely labeled containers of playing pieces for:

• Heroscape
• Axis & Allies Miniatures (stored by faction)
• Axis & Allies War at Sea
• Star Wars Miniatures (stored by faction)
• Star Wars Starship Battles (stored by faction)
• ActionClix - Halo
• HeroClix
• Battletech/MechClix
• Battlefield Evolution (I think I was the only person that ever heard of this one)

Yes, that's a lot of crap stuff. I didn't even know I had ¼ of it. Now that it's divvied up I not only know I have it, but it's easier and faster to get to a specific piece for playing. Theoretically.

I still need to work on making sure I have all the rulesets - Wizards didn't renew their Star Wars License this year, so they're no longer hosting a copy of the rules on their website. I didn't see a copy of the War at Sea rules, so I'll have to make sure to download a copy (I'm pretty sure that should be up on the Wizards site).

Permalink boardgames renovation/remodelling

....Is.... Cooking

10.14.2010

I've been on a Rock (ok, "Dwayne") kick lately. Part of it this is due to his non-Disney action movie, Faster, coming out at Thanksgiving. The 2 previews I've seen look really good, so I'm a little pumped although it's still a month and a half away from opening up.

I've also bee surfing YouTube, perusing old promos and realizing just how good, how charismatic, the man was. He's been out of the wrestling spotlight for a while, but I can still catch Jerry off guard once in a while.

     Russ:Jer, where would you like to go for lunch today?
     Jer:I don't know how about
     Russ:IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU WANT TO GO TO LUNCH!

After that we both giggle.

So now to celebrate my Rock ramblings, I share with you an oft forgotten Wyclef Jean video from 2000.

Permalink wrestling

It's 5 hours earlier in Hawaii

10.13.2010

Dear Dr Blondie,

Happy non-belated birthday!

Hope your Hawaiian vacation is still going well.

It looks like I'm so cheap a blog post may count as your birthday present :)

Permalink random

This Year...

10.11.2010

This has turned into the year I don't really feel like doing anything. I started the year with all kinds of goals, both for fun and professionally, but I haven't done squat to not just achieve any of those goals, but to move anywhere in the right direction of achieving them.

I could say I need to look over my goals again and make sure they're achievable, but I knew they were within my grasp when I first set my goals. I've just lacked the fortitude to stick with the game plan, and in most cases that game plan never got off the ground.

So I'm a little frustrated with myself on various levels. It sounds like it's time to cut back and have have 1 goal. 1 thing to focus on. I just have to decide what that 1 thing is, followed promptly by getting off my lazy butt.

Permalink random

Bike Seat Bladders

09.27.2010

Last week Gina and I trekked down to Gulf Shores, bicycles in tow with dreams and aspirations of getting in some good rides. The previous 2 weeks we had ramped up (ok, "started again") riding since the temperature finally dropped below BOILING. The first day at the beach the heat index was 103°, which was back to BOILING. The next day temps fell back into the 90's, which was good enough for me to give it a whirl.

The Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail is a mile and a half from the condo, and on our last trip we rode a couple of miles on the trail. The whole thing is paved, nice and wide. Unfortunately on the last trip, I opted for us to turn down Rosemary Dunes, which is damn near 2 miles of unshaded pavement. This time I opted for a more covered route. In addition, we rode to the trail from the condo instead of driving the bikes there (we didn't know it was that close the first time!).

We pedaled along the trails, and at the 5 mile point asked Gina how far she wanted to ride. As Gina hadn't had anything to eat, she was getting a little tired and decided now would be a good time to start back. We made the 5 miles back without incident, until I pulled into the condo parking lot.

I have a collection of bike seats (mine are big enough I don't feel right calling them saddles). The one currently installed was the Wide Bike Seat from Casual Male Big & Tall. The cool things about this seat are:

• It's 14½" wide
• Each side has an air bladder to make riding more comfortable
• It has a 500lb capacity, which I am well below

As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed my left butt cheek was noticeably lower than the right. And my left cheek could feel little bumpy bits. It seems the left seat bladder was empty. Once we got back into the condo I pulled the seat off and started looking for the leak. Eventually I tracked it down to a bad seal between the bladder and the plastic nozzle where you fill the bladder. If it had just been a hole in the bladder a tire-seal patch might have fixed it, but I couldn't think of a good way to seal up angular plastic and the bladder - especially since I really didn't know exactly where the leak was in there.

At this point I called up a local bike shop, mainly to make sure they were open as it was suddenly the tourist off-season. Turns out the shop was open from 9-6, so the next day I made my way to the shop, which turned into an adventure in itself thanks to an address on the Google reviews page, a different address on the bike shops website, and a GPS that told me I had reached my destination while I was on a bridge.

I went into the bike shop and asked for the widest seat they had. They brought me a nice wide, padded seat (no air bladders). I looked at the bottom of the seat and saw the normal bracket for mounting the seat on a post. Since I have a nice, semi-custom made bike that can take my tonnage, I do not have a seat post, but rather a bracket that clamps onto 2 rails on the bottom of the seat. In fact, it's these 2 rails that the normal bracket is already attached. I asked if they could take off the bracket since I didn't have any tools, which they happily obliged. I've got to admit, bike shop people are nice guys. I made my way back to the condo to install my seat.

Except the rails on the bottom of the seat were too far apart for my bracket. I tried for half an hour to squeeze them in, but I couldn't get them to fit. It was too close to 6:00 to try to make it back to the bike shop, so the first thing the next morning I, along with the seat and the bracket, were heading back to the shop for some help. I got to the shop and explained what happened, and even managed to show the guys how the bracket didn't fit. Was the seat a different size? Do I need another bracket? Do I need another seat? After comparing the seat I had gotten to a couple of others in the shop, it seems the original bracket, when mounted at the factory, was pulling the rails together. When the bracket came off, the rails went back to their original position. After about 20 minutes and a crescent wrench, rails and bracket met properly. I was off to the condo, added the seat to the bike, and once again ready for the open road.

Times like this, pedaling the bike is definitely the easy part.

Permalink conveyances road trip